Matthew 12:43-45 Did the Devil Have His Way With You Too?

by prophecor 4 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  prophecor

  Matthew 12:43-45 "When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through parched places in search of a resting-place, and finds none. Then it says, ' I will go back to my house out of which I moved ' and on arriving it finds it unoccupied but swept clean and adorned. Then it goes its way and takes and takes along with it seven different spirits more wicked than itself, and, after getting inside they dwell there; and the final circumstances of that man become worse than the first.

  Above is a scripture that has been a haunting from my past. When I first began studying with Jehovah's Witnesses back in the 70's as an adolescent, I was in the process of having my life rebuilt, restructured and resurfaced. I'd stopped using foul language, I began treating people nicer, I'd began a new journey in life as I'd believed I had finally found a purpose for my life.

  Sometime after getting dug in, I began to slip away. The issues surrounding girls as a teen began to surface, my peers, none of whom were interested in the truth. I began to slip into drug use slowly but surely, and before you know it, I was full blown gone. No longer able to be reached with regard to any of the teachings concerning Jehovah's Witnesses.

  After my life had reached a point of no return, I was given this scripture as a reason as to why, my life had suddenly done back flips from being a good descent JW in the making, to someone who had left all reasonableness and sanity. It would take another 17 years to turn full circle to try and make a comeback.

  If the above scripture is true, what hope is there for those who've become disfellowshipped due to bad behaviour. If the demons or wicked spirits return to make these individuals worse than what it was when they began, what hope is there for those to wrestle against the insurmountable odds of fighting against those numbers of demons. Am I taking this scripture too literally? Is there any other way of looking at it?
• 

  damselfly

  Then it says, ' I will go back to my house out of which I moved ' and on arriving it finds it unoccupied but swept clean and adorned.

  The word unoccupied jumped out at me. The JW's believe that you have Jehovah or you have nothing so that is how they interpret it (imo)

  I am assuming that when you left the JW's you still had beliefs (morals, values etc)? They would be "occuping" that space. Therefore when the demons returned to their former dwelling, they would find it already occupied and move on.

  See? No worries!

  Dams (hoped that helped)
• 

  Narkissos

  This Q story (also Luke 11:24ff) sounds as a typical example of cultic scare-tactic, which is pretty common in the NT: falling away will make you worse than never joining (the Judas story, Hebrews 6:4ff, 2 Peter 2:20ff come to mind). The Matthean ending tones it down a bit by making it collectively anti-Jewish ("So will it be also with this evil generation.")

  Perhaps in the original setting the emphasis was not so much on religious loyalty than on personal morality and character. Interestingly the saying is paralleled in this very perspective in the Shepherd of Hermas, Command 5:

  Be patient, he said, and long-suffering, so you will have dominion over all wicked works and fulfil all righteousness. For if you will be patient, the Holy Spirit who dwells in you will be pure and not be darkened by any evil spirit, but being full of joy will be increased, and celebrate in the body in which it dwells, and serve the Lord with joy, and in great peace. But if any anger will overtake you, presently the Holy Spirit who is in you will be thwarted and seek to depart from you. For he is choked by the evil spirit, and does not have the liberty of serving the Lord as he would; for he is grieved by anger. When therefore both these spirits dwell together, it is destructive to a man. As if one should take a little wormwood, and put it into a vessel of honey, the whole honey would be spoiled; a great quantity of honey is corrupted by a very little wormwood and loses the sweetness of honey, and is no longer acceptable to its Lord because the whole honey is made bitter and loses its use. But if no wormwood be put into the honey, it is sweet and profitable to its Lord. Thus forbearance is sweeter than honey and profitable to the Lord who dwells in it. But anger is unprofitable. If therefore anger will be mixed with forbearance, the soul is distressed, and its prayer is not profitable with God.
  And I said to him, Sir, I would know the sinfulness of anger, so that I may keep myself from it. And he said to me, You will know it, and if you will not keep yourself from it, you will lose your hope with all your house. Therefore depart from it. For I the messenger of righteousness am with you; and all who depart from it, as many as will repent with all their hearts, will live to God, and I will be with them and will keep them all. For all who have repented have been justified by the most holy messenger, who is a minister of salvation.

  And now, he said, hear the wickedness of anger, how evil and hurtful it is, and how it overthrows the servants of God. It cannot hurt those that are full of faith because the power of God is with them, but it overthrows the doubtful and those that are destitute of faith. For as often as it sees such men, it casts itself into their hearts, and so a man or woman is in bitterness for nothing other than for the things of life, or for sustenance, or for a vain word that might come their way, or by reason of any friend, or for a debt, or for any other superfluous things of the like nature. For these things are foolish and superfluous, and vain to the servants of God. But equanimity is strong, vigorous, and of great power, and sits in great authority; it is cheerful, rejoicing in peace and glorifying God at all times with meekness. And this long-suffering dwells with those that are full of faith. But anger is foolish, and light, and empty. Now bitterness is bred through folly; by bitterness, anger; by anger, fury. And this fury arises from so many evil principles that it works a great and incurable sin. For when all these things are in the same vessel in which the Holy Spirit dwells, the vessel cannot contain them but runs over; and because the Spirit is tender and cannot abide with the evil one, it departs and dwells with him that is meek. When, therefore, it is departed from the man in whom it dwelled, that man becomes destitute of the Holy Spirit, and is afterwards filled with wicked spirits, and is blinded with evil thoughts. Thus does it happen to all angry men.

  This sounds very much like the Epistle of James and recalls the story of Saul in 1 Samuel (16:14ff etc.) The emphasis is not on the "right belief" or "religion," rather personal attitude in life (patience vs. anger). I suspect the original Q meaning was very close to that.
• 

  kazar

  I suffer from manic-depression. Once, as a Witness I had a particularly severe episiode of it. A psychiatrist was out of the question for me since the Witnesses told me they were controlled by demons, so I sought help from the elders ((mature ones in the truth). I was told by them that I didn't have enough faith in Jehovah, I didn't pray enough, attend enough meetings, and eventually lost Jehovah's spirit and my mind became empty as the scriptural analogy applies in Matthew and demons took over. In other word's I didn't have my mind filled with thoughts of Jehovah so the demons took over. That is how it was explained to me. Do you think their analysis made me better? Hell, no. It sent me into a real tailspin. So you see, I brought my illness on myself! According to the Witnesses, I was not mentally unstable, but demonized, regardless of a doctor's diagnosis. I will never forgive the b **&&&& for that!

  Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
• 

  Leolaia

  See also the indwelling of the Spirit in Hermas and in the apocryphal scripture quoted in James 4:5:

  James 4:5: "He yearns jealously after the spirit (to pneuma) which he has caused to dwell (ho katókisen) within us (en hémin)".

  Hermas, Mand. 3.1: "Love truth, and allow only truth to come from your mouth, so that the spirit (to pneuma), which God caused to dwell (ho ho theos katókisen) in this flesh (en té sarki tauté), may prove to be true in the sight of all men".

  Hermas, Mand. 10.2.4-5: "Both are a cause for grief for the Holy Spirit, double-mindedness (dipsukhia) and an angry temper. Rid yourself, therefore, of grief and do not oppress the Holy Spirit (to pneuma to hagion) that dwells in you (en soi katoikoun)".

  In Hermas, each negative emotion is a separate "spirit" that takes up residence in a person, crowding out the Holy Spirit: "An angry temper is first of all foolish, fickle, and senseless. Then from foolishness comes bitterness, and from bitterness wrath, and from wrath anger, and from anger vengefulness; then vengefulness, being composed of all these evil elements, becomes a great and incurable sin. For when all these spirits dwell in one vessel, where the Holy Spirit also dwells, the vessel cannot contain them, but overflows. So the sensitive Spirit, which is not used to living with an evil spirit nor with harshness, departs from a person with the evil spirits" (Mandate 5.4-6). This concept may depend on such texts as Numbers 5:12-14, 29-30 (LXX) which refers to a "spirit of jealousy" (pneuma zélóseós), and similar ideas are found in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs:

  "You do these as well, my children, and every spirit of Beliar will flee from you ... so long as you have the God of heaven with you and walk with all mankind in purity of heart" (Testament of Issachar 7:7).

  "The spirit of jealousy and pretentiousness kept saying to me, 'You too are his son.' And one of the spirits of Beliar was at work within me....Anger is evil, my children, for it becomes the motivating force of the soul itself....When the soul is continually preturbed, the Lord withdraws from it and Beliar rules it. Observe the Lord's commandments, then, my children, and keep his Law. Avoid wrath, and hate lying, in order that the Lord may dwell with you, and Beliar may flee from you...Throughout all your life love the Lord, and one another with a true heart...Draw near to God and to the angel who intercedes for you" (Testament of Dan 1:6-7, 3:1, 4:7-5:1, 3, 6:2).

  "Even if the spirits of Beliar seek to derange you with all sorts of wicked oppresion, they will not dominate you....The deliberations of the good man are not in the control of the deceitful spirit, Beliar, for the angel of peace guides his life. For he does not look with passionate longing at corruptible things, nor does he accumulate weath out of love of pleasure. The good set of mind does not receive glory or dishonor from men, nor does it know deceit, or lying, or conflict, or abuse. For the Lord dwells in him, illuminates his life, and he rejoices in everythng at every appropriate time. The good set of mind does not talk from both sides of his mouth ... there is no duplicity in its perception or its hearing. (i.e. not double-minded)" (Testament of Benjamin 6:1-6).

  "Beware of the spirit of deceit and envy. For envy dominates the whole of man's mind and does not permit him to eat or drink or to do anything good. Rather it keeps prodding him to destroy the one whom he envies. Whenever the one who is envied flourishes, the envious one languishes....If anyone flees to the Lord for refuge, the evil spirit will quickly depart from him, and his mind will be eased. From then on he has compassion on the one whom he envied and has sympathetic feelings with those who love him; thus his envy ceases" (Testament of Simeon 3:1-6).

  Such concepts thus were devised to posit a spiritual source for bad feelings and vices. In ancient Judaism and Christianity, these concepts were mythologized further....particularly in the Enochic corpus. In the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, the demons are identified as the "souls of the deceased giants" (8.18-19), whereas their angelic parents were seized and imprisoned for eternal punishment. These wandering demons, having lost their original Nephilim bodies, continually seek new bodies to find refuge. These "possessions" give rise to sin and vice: "Wherefore you are polluted in body and soul, and in the present life you are tyrannized over by sufferings and demons, but in that which is to come you shall have your souls punished" (8.22).

  More on James, Hermas, and other sources cited here:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/80498/1.ashx